Volume 6, January 3, 2000

"Academic Advising Goes High-Tech"
by Justine K. Brown, Converge, October, 1999, p. 18

"Pennsylvania State University is among the first to implement a system designed solely to handle academic advising duties." (p. 18) "For example, a student can log onto the system to late-drop a course and the system will automatically advise him or her of the consequences of those actions." (p. 18) "In addition to dropping courses, students can also use CAAIS [Comprehensive Academic Advising and Information System] to track degree requirements, see tuition payment records, check on a loan status and view their transcripts." (p. 18) "…the ultimate goal of CAAIS is to permit advisors to get more involved in higher-level advising and avoid time-consuming, routine duties that can be handled through the system." (p. 18) "We have roughly 80,000 full-time students enrolled, and we knew around grade reporting time most of those students would be logging on to CAAIS. That meant we had to target our performance objectives for peak demand." (p. 19) "Since academic advising is not concrete, students often end up getting conflicting opinions. With advice, that’s valuable. But if the question is about a university policy, you want accuracy and consistency." (p. 19) "One area of expansion for CAAIS will eventually give students the ability to explore majors online in detail." (p. 19) "In the fall, Pennsylvania State is also planning to open the CAAIS system for use in university-wide enrollment, and financial aid functions may soon be incorporated as well." (p. 19)